


this is nothing more than fun to him

by andthentheybow



Series: of false gods and fake kings and everything in between [8]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Gen, Minecraft IRL, Morally Ambiguous Character, Non-Linear Narrative, Sapnap-centric (Video Blogging RPF), listen gang, no beta we die like fungi, no i will not be taking questions, no one in the dream team is really mortal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:28:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28119939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthentheybow/pseuds/andthentheybow
Summary: he is flint and steel, something dangerous, a force to be reckoned with. he is a match, a burning flame, the embers of the fire that burn on the darkest nights.and he’s tired of it.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Darryl Noveschosch & Sapnap, Floris | Fundy & Sapnap, GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Quackity & Sapnap, TommyInnit & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: of false gods and fake kings and everything in between [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001208
Comments: 19
Kudos: 193





	this is nothing more than fun to him

**Author's Note:**

> don't be creepy about content creators, these are my interpretations of their personas, if they're uncomfortable this will be deleted, etc etc
> 
> tw: there are just. a lot of mentions of death/canon-typical violence in this. there's nothing really descriptive or graphic, just figured i should let you know. stay safe! :)

he is not human.

a regular human would not enjoy the rush of death as much as he does, the soaring feeling of hitting the ground or burning or drowning or whatever. he’s not as fond of mob-inflicted deaths, but still, the feeling of pain makes him feel alive. the feeling of respawning, of being given another chance, even moreso.

not that he dies that often. there are plenty of people that aren’t exactly human, especially in dream’s world. they joke that technoblade never dies, but that’s because techno is a god. dream can match him in a fight because dream is a god, too. george is some sort of deity and bad is some sort of demon and eret is just other. he himself is some sort of fire spirit, the lava as his blood and the fire coursing through his veins, hair of smoke held down by the bandana he rarely takes off.

and the dying- it doesn’t come often, but when it does, it’s fun. this whole thing- this is nothing more than fun to him.

which is the biggest indicator that he is not human.

*%*

he is flint and steel, something dangerous, a force to be reckoned with. he is a match, a burning flame, the embers of the fire that burn on the darkest nights.

and he’s tired of it.

he’s tired of being a weapon, the perfect soldier, something that others use to their benefit. others being dream, of course, it’s always dream. his best friend, the green to his red, the ice to his fire. dream is a dragon and he is the first part of the treasure hoard, the first gold coin, the first thing dream was possessive over.

george is a crown, the gleaming jewel, the ultimate prize of the treasure hoard. he is not a jewel, not a necklace, not a crown. he is a sword, netherite and diamond and enchanted, maxed out in power and dangerous and deadly.

and he is sick of it.

*%*

he has known dream for a long time. they were teenagers once, kids, really, barely able to hold up the heavy swords of their fathers. they raced through village streets and they found that dream was something other, something different. purple flames coursed through his veins; dream was a god among men, and he had the skills to prove it.

he himself wasn’t quite human either. the flames that danced in his eyes were enough of an indicator of that. but his differences were more subtle, no blasts of fire or flaming fists. not like dream, who had a way of moving that was otherworldly, that reminded him of the way the endermen attacked, weaved, dodged, disappeared only to show up directly behind you.

dream was no enderman, just the way he was no blaze (at least, not in the literal sense).

eventually, dream created worlds. they raced through streets that had been undiscovered, had entire realms just to themselves, defeated dragon after dragon and hopped worlds as fast as they made new ones. they met george and two became three. they called themselves the dream team and everyone knew their names.

*%*

now, he looks dream dead in the eyes and shoves george behind him. dream may be a dragon, but if you spend enough time around people, a little bit of their soul starts to become yours. he’s taken on plenty of dream’s habits over the years, and being protective of his friends is one of them.

he never thought he’d be protecting them from dream.

“just say you hate me,” george spits, and he knows it’s not about the crown, george doesn’t really care about the crown. this is about dream grabbing tommy by the front of the shirt and cursing and saying he cares about nothing, nothing other than those damn discs, the discs they’ve gone to war over one too many times. this is about dream implying that he doesn’t care about them, doesn’t care about him and george, doesn’t care about all the dragons they’ve slain and kingdoms they’ve conquered together.

dream is sputtering, trying to come up with something, and he feels a spark of disgusted pleasure at dream being finally, finally at a loss for words. and he shoves george behind him again, weapon raised, ready to defend to the last. dream may not care about them, but he does. he cares about dream and george more than words can begin to describe. but if they turn on each other-

well, dream doesn’t care about him, does he? tommy was the only one brave enough to say it, but that doesn’t make it any less true. if they turn on each other, he’s going to side with george.

so he and george take off, they start a new nation, half as a joke, but they do. they get autonomy and recognition and he grins as he looks over the world from el rapids. he is finally not under dream’s control, he is finally not on dream’s land, he is finally not just dream’s weapon.

he is fucking sick of his story being centered around dream’s.

*%*

l’manberg’s rise and fall is faster than a summer day. it’s fun, to watch a nation born and destroyed before your very eyes. the revolution is, in all honesty, entertaining. it’s something to do. things were quiet before tommy, and he never really enjoyed the quiet.

lacing l’manberg with tnt is fun. setting it alight is fun. watching the destruction of a revolution is possibly the most fun of all. this is nothing more than fun to him.

he is destruction incarnate, a fire that cannot be put out. he is the very definition of chaos. if technoblade is the blood god, he thinks he might be the chaos god. he can die (oh, can he die, and he does, again and again, fighting dragons and zombies and piglins and every mob possible), but in the end, it is not his own destruction that happens. it is him destroying everything else.

and seeing the high obsidian walls blown to dust is a reminder of that. watching them dive into the water with panicked screams is a reminder of that.

and it is a reminder that they are just kids, most of them, and that he is barely older than they are. they are just child soldiers fighting in a war that isn’t really theirs, and nothing more.

*%*

he wants to be more. schlatt shows up and makes a deal with quackity and george is firmly on their side.

he goes back and forth for a while. dream wants to side with pogtopia, claims he’s done being the bad guy. they all know the truth- they wanted dream to be their villain, so dream was their villain. now they want his help, so he will help. dream plays the roles they give him.

he is not confined to roles. fire cannot be confined to a singular container. he does what he wants, when he wants, the flickering flame of a candle that can’t be burned out. so he dances back and forth between the two sides for a bit, before eventually settling with george.

“why?” dream asks him.

“chaos,” he replies with a grin. he has no doubt that pogtopia is going to destroy things, but schlatt moreso. besides, he and wilbur have never really gotten along, and they all know how he feels about fundy.

“fundy’s not on pogtopia’s side,” dream tells him. they both know the truth. they’ve seen the journals. neither of them will tell anyone because neither of them care that much. they’re both just here for the chaos.

he takes to sneaking around the white house. it’s fun, listening in on conversations that he shouldn’t be. it’s thrilling, it’s dangerous, this is nothing more than fun to him. at night, he meets up with george in back hallways and they whisper and pretend they don’t know that dream is watching them.

he has been with dream nearly their whole lives. he knows when his best friend is around. he knows when the dragon is guarding his treasure hoard.

sometimes, when he’s sneaking around, schlatt will see him. he’s loud, he’s not the best at being stealthy, and he doesn’t think schlatt ever really gets that much sleep. and the president will look at him and he will feel the presence of the dragon at his back and schlatt will turn away.

the feeling is something powerful, of knowing the god of the world is on your side.

he’s fucking sick of it.

*%*

the god of the world isn’t always on his side. from this moment on, really, is when the god stops being on his side. because the god of the world and his sort-of sworn enemy just burned down his tower, and he’s fucking pissed.

he killed the cow. he’s not proud of it, and it was mostly an accident, but dream and tommy burn down his tower and blame it on bad, of all people. bad, who they try and actually frame for it when he can see through them from miles away.

they don’t go to war, exactly, because they’re already at war, they’re always at war, ever since tommy stepped onto this world it’s been nothing but war. he’s not sick of that, he’s sick of everyone going behind each other’s backs about it. if they’re going to fight, just suck it up and do it out in the open, especially when everyone already kind of knows who’s on who’s side.

so they don’t go to war, but there’s certainly a battle. the battle of the lake, tommy calls it, and dream and techno come out of the shadows to defend the kid.

and ender, with dream actually fighting to kill him, it’s almost kind of fun. he knows damn well that he’s going to die, because he can’t beat dream and techno at the same time, even with bad and skeppy and karl at his side.

(he can beat dream- the god of the world hates to admit it, but they’re both competitive, and when they get competitive, they get dangerous. when he gets competitive, his eyes burn with fire and his hair turns to smoke and his grip on his sword could set his opponent aflame. they don’t mention the burn scars on dream’s arms that he heals over because he can, because he doesn’t want them to know that he is not the only non-human in this world.

he can beat dream- he has, before, and he will again. dream isn’t the only one here that’s something other.)

but he cannot beat both dream and techno at once, so he embraces the death that will come of this, because this is nothing more than fun to him.

*%*

contrary to popular belief, he’s afraid of a lot of things. he doesn’t like heights all that much, and he’s not the fondest of drowning, and the end really, really just gives him the creeps. he’s afraid of being embarrassed in front of his friends and he’s afraid of his friends thinking down on him and he’s really just anxious about his friends hating him, honestly, that’s what spawns a lot of his fears (and that’s why dream saying he doesn’t care about them hurts so much).

one thing he is not afraid of is the nether. trips to the nether are fun, and maybe it’s because he’s not afraid of fire, and he’s not afraid of explosions, and he’s not afraid of setting a bed down and blowing it to hell to lure dream out of whatever crevice he’s hiding in during a manhunt.

and maybe that’s because his blood is lava and his hair is smoke and his eyes are fire. but it’s nothing more than fun to him. falling from a great height, slamming into water or the ground, either way, the rush of falling is fun. swimming, getting dolphins behind you, finding shipwrecks, that’s fun. even the things he’s afraid of are fun.

*%*

there is one thing he is afraid of that is not fun is the stuff that’s related to his friends. he’s terrified that they’ll abandon him, he’s terrified that they’ll hate him, and he never lets it show.

but what scares him most is the possibility of losing them. dream has shown where he stands on that, and the god had better well know it’ll take a lot to earn forgiveness.

“sapnap,” george says. they’re in one of the houses they made in el rapids, pressed together on the couch, watching a small fire burn out. there is an empty space on george’s other side that they don’t mention. “i don’t hate him.”

or maybe they do mention it.

“i do,” he mutters. he’s lying.

“i don’t,” george repeats. “he may hate us, but he’s still our best friend.”

“he doesn’t give a shit about us, georgie,” he replies, and for once, george doesn’t say anything about the nickname. the two shift closer together to try and hide from the truth.

*%*

he met george in bad’s world, shortly after he and dream started hopping. dream knew george first- dream the dragon-slayer met george the world-hopper and immediately couldn’t shut up about him.

“who is he?” he asks bad and skeppy one day.

“error,” bad tells him. “code 404. not found.”

“george not found,” he replies, unimpressed.

and then he meets george, because dream drags him back to the spawn point, saying that george is supposed to be stopping in from whatever weird deity thing he’s been up to lately (based on what dream and bad have told him, george is not human either. none of them are).

and george appears and dream tackles him into a hug and they hit it off instantly. they bicker like nobody’s business and he immediately knows he will defend george with his life. george is clearly part of dream’s treasure hoard, which means he’s part of the group, and they will die for him, and he will die for them.

george lifts his goggles one day and he sees two eyes of different colors, eyes that see far more than any normal person should. that’s the confirmation that george is some weird other being, and when he asks what, george replies with the same thing bad told him. “error. code 404. not found.”

“well,” he says, not really sure how to reply to that.

“and you’re some sort of fire spirit,” george tells him, and yeah, alright.

dream doesn’t know- at least, they don’t think dream knows. dream gives no indication of knowing. dream must know that they’re something other, because they keep up with him on his world hops and speed runs and they kill thousands of dragons with him. but dream is a god, and the gods have their own problems.

*%*

he honestly doesn’t mean to start the pet war. it just kind of happens, mostly on accident, and he figures, hey, if he’s going to be dream’s lackey, he might as well do what dream does. they give him the role of antagonist, and that’s the role he’ll play.

they duel to end it, and he wins. of course he wins, he always wins. he knows that it sparks a hatred in fundy, and it sparks a bit of hatred in him, too, both at himself and at fundy; that they let it get this far, to this point.

later, much later, dream makes him release mars into the ocean. he thinks that might be when he fully decides that if dream makes one wrong move-

well, he’s never played traitor before. maybe that’s the role he’ll take on next.

*%*

eret knows the role of traitor all too well. dream catches them alone one day and offers them power; the kingship of his land. eret comes to him and george a few days later, asking to see dream. they’re both distrusting, not because of who eret is, but because of who eret works for. still, together, they know they can take eret.

so they lead the future king to dream, and eret tells the three of them that he’s going to be a traitor. and he does his job beautifully, “it was never meant to be” becoming a staple of the world. they kill wilbur and tommy and tubbo and fundy in the final control room and eventually the final control room becomes a cemetery.

he visits it, a long time after. there are cobwebs and chunks of stone everywhere. it’s a graveyard; the revolution nearly died here. he wonders what would have happened if it had. maybe he and dream and george would still be friends. maybe he wouldn’t be plotting to take down the god of the world.

this is nothing more than fun to him. he tells himself that over and over and over again. he’s lying.

*%*

“do you think he cares about me?” he asks tommy, and the kid gives an awkward laugh. he already knows the answer.

“dream cares about george,” tommy says, and tommy is wrong. he’s wrong, he’s wrong, he’s so so wrong-

he knows dream. dream may be a god, but they still grew up together. dream will end up back by his side eventually. that’s just how it goes. that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

that’s not the way it is.

he asks tommy again, and tommy says “no,” and that’s that.

he doesn’t actually dislike tommy. he was never going to vote pog2020, not when george was on the line, under direct orders from dream to create a little disruption. he may have fought against tommy over and over again, but he doesn’t dislike the kid. he sees a lot of himself there; the love of chaos, the desire for attention, the need to be loved.

and tommy is the hero of the story, they all know it. when tommy is exiled, he half wants to reach out and offer the kid a place in el rapids, but he doesn’t know if that would technically be allowed. and he knows that tommy is going to go on his protagonist arc of self-discovery, so he’s going to hang out in logstedshire alone either way.

this was supposed to be fun. this was supposed to be nothing more than fun to him. that’s the way it’s supposed to be. and that’s not the way it is.

*%*

the way it is is this:

bad tells him that he is his father, and he goes along with it. he loves bad, he’s always viewed bad as an older brother figure, so bad adopting him is nothing really new.

he and george build two houses in el rapids and switch between the two. if anyone asks, they each claim one house, but they stay together. there is an empty space where dream is supposed to be. they never mention it. but they know that they need each other to get through whatever is coming next.

he jokes that he is in love with karl and quackity, goes so far as to get engaged to them, and his is in love with them. platonically, of course. they’re his best friends, too. they may not be part of dream’s treasure hoard, but if he were a dragon, they’d be part of his.

he sees dream, sometimes, at night, watching him and george. the ghost of a dragon doesn’t leave them, even when they’re safe in their own nation. dream thinks they don’t know he’s there, but they know. they’ve always known.

*%*

there is a bandana and a mask and a pair of goggles sitting on top of the battle plans on the kitchen table. all three are bloodstained. there is a rip in the bandana. there is a crack in the lens of the goggles. the mask is untouched. the owners of the three items are collapsed in one bed, exhausted, limbs heavy. they are fighting a war that is taking too long.

there is a bandana and a mask and a pair of goggles sitting on top of the baskets of food on the kitchen table. all three are pristine. their owners are outside in the garden, laughing together. the war has been done for a while and l’manberg is free and the three of them are finally free from the fighting.

they’re not free from the fighting. they’re never free. this world was built for peace and knows nothing but war. some day, he thinks, they’ll escape.

there is a mask sitting on the kitchen table. the bandana is in his hair. the goggles are nowhere to be seen. he has a bag in one arm filled with his things and george’s things and dream is standing across from him. his eyes are gleaming with anger and tears and he has never looked more god-like.

“there’s nothing i can do to convince you to stay?” dream asks.

“there are consequences for your actions, dream,” he replies, and he is so, so angry. there is fire in his eyes and his closed fists and dream takes a step back, because even gods can be burned, and if they fight now they will tear this house to the ground.

“i’ll see you later, sapnap,” dream says. he shakes his head and walks out of the house and his heart is breaking but he does not turn around.

he knows he will see dream again. he knows one day the war will end. he knows that dream cares about them. but for now, these are the roles they play.

*%*

he plays many roles, but the only constant is that he is something more than human. he is a fire spirit, burning brighter and brighter and brighter until one day he’ll burn out. but until that day, he burns to protect his friends. he burns to keep them safe. he burns to keep them bright.

he and george and quackity and karl stand on the edge of el rapids and look out at the world. the sun is rising and the day is going to be beautiful. and in moments like these, he remembers why he does it, he remembers why he hasn’t left yet.

because this is nothing more than fun to him. this is nothing more than a game, a game where in the end he knows he’ll be back with his best friends and he and george and dream will collapse into the same bed and laugh together, and the mask and bandana and goggles will be together on the kitchen table.

one day. one day the wars will be over and the world will return to peace and things will be okay. for now, he and george will watch the sun rise.

**Author's Note:**

> comments/kudos/etc fuel my typing fingers :) come yell at me on twitter/tumblr if you want @andthentheybow


End file.
